


A Curse Upon You

by entanglednow



Category: Fringe
Genre: Angst, Gen, Humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-12-20
Updated: 2010-12-20
Packaged: 2017-10-14 12:16:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 869
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/149153
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/entanglednow/pseuds/entanglednow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Imagine, if you will, a man whose brain waves could alter the very fabric of reality itself. Bending probabilities, causing any number of calamities to befall you simply by wishing it, by wishing <i>harm</i> upon you."</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Curse Upon You

  
Astrid is relieved when Olivia comes through the doors. Because, much as she loves Walter, once he convinces himself of something he can be exhausting. Exhausting and impossible to talk out of things, and the things Walter wants to do when he's in one of those moods are dubious at best. In-between the milkshakes and pancakes, and recipes for a new type of muffin. There's never quite been a clear divide between foodstuffs and devices of terrible and gruesome destruction in Walter's head.

In some ways Olivia's better at calming Walter down than Peter. Peter can be patient. But Olivia, Olivia can stand under the angriest and most confused of Walter's raving, speaking softly and asking the questions that need asking. And eventually Walter will exhaust himself against her calm. Sometimes it feels like calm isn't so much Olivia's nature but a skill she'd learnt, a skill she'd perfected.

Astrid thinks there's something intractable about her. In a good way.

"Agent Dunham." Walter turns away from the board he'd been furiously making calculation on, taking the pen and leaving the cap to clatter into one of his earlier experiments. Which had involved milk and electricity in a way Astrid hadn't enjoyed cleaning up at all. "Have you seen Peter?"

Olivia shakes her head. "Not today."

"I'm worried about him." Walter nods, as if worrying about him is something only right and sensible

Olivia frowns and comes closer, hand laid on the table, carefully far from any experiments.

"Walter, what is it, what's the matter with Peter?"

"Persons unknown have laid some sort of dark curse upon him."

Olivia's head tips forward, brows drawing down. "A curse? Walter has something happened to make you think that? Something strange?"

"Not yet, but I can feel it, something not right."

Astrid carefully moves the microscope away from Walter's agitated flailing.

"He's been insisting all day that we should be more prepared. Something about horrors we can't begin to imagine," she tells Olivia.

"So we should," Walter says sharply, pointing at her like she's just proven him right rather than suggested cautious restraint. "Imagine, if you will, a man whose brain waves could alter the very fabric of reality itself. Bending probabilities, causing any number of calamities to befall you simply by wishing it, by wishing _harm_ upon you." Walter thumps his hand down on the table and a collection of science instruments and candy wrappers jolt upwards and then land with a clatter.

Olivia frowns at the scatter of instruments and Astrid can almost see her steeling herself to ask if Walter has any proof that something like that is actually happening. If there have been any incidents that even remotely looked like someone shaping reality. It's amazing what you can believe, after enough crazy things have happened to you. How many things were possible, good and bad. Though Astrid is not overly fond of the idea of people who can curse you with the power of their mind.

Olivia takes two steps forward, reaches a hand out and lets it rest on Walter's elbow.

"Walter, I'm sure no one has cursed Peter."

Olivia makes you believe that she's telling the truth. She also makes you believe that if she's wrong she'll turn the world upside down and shake it to make it right.

"We wouldn't know that, we wouldn't know until it was too late. He could be shaping the world to his whims at this very moment and we'd be completely unprepared."

"I'm sure Peter will let you scan him for outside influences when he comes back."

"Peter never lets me do that," Walter mutters, as if he's not quite sure whether to be relieved or excited. "He never lets me do that unless there's a calamity already unfolding - and I've resisted the urge to manufacture a calamity for that very reason."

Olivia very obviously doesn't comment on that.

"This time I'm sure he would, just this once, to put your mind at ease." Olivia's wearing just the slightest half-smile. The careful one that's meant to be reassuring. Though Astrid has seen it slide into something that almost looks fond more than once.

"I only wants what's best for him," Walter insists with a quiet sort of desperation.

"I know Walter," Olivia says quietly. "And I know lately he hasn't made that easy for you. But Peter wants what's best for you too. Which is why he'll let you run your tests. But you have to promise to accept the results."

"Without a larger sample group the results could be unreliable," Walter says, all unhappiness and worry.

"Walter how many brain scans do you have?" Astrid reminds him gently.

Walter's expression shifts into something quite different. He turns abruptly and finds the shelf that holds the dusty box that Astrid knows contains at least fifty scans from earlier cases.

"Oh, thousands I'd imagine, a fascinating thing the human brain." He looks, for a second, half tempted to hug the box in glee.

"I think that's a large enough control group," Astrid points out.

"I should have scans of all your brains, just to be sure," Walter says with a nod. "Just in case. So I can keep you all safe."

  



End file.
